A NORTHERN PROTOTYPE FOR THE ARTHURIAN GRAIL CASTLE

Drumburgh Roman Fort

A half dozen kilometers west of the Aballava/Avalana/"Avalon" fort on the west end of Hadrian's Wall is Congabata at Drumburgh.  Congabata might mean ‘dish-like’, perhaps a reference to the bold knoll on which the fort sits, which might have been seen as an upturned dish (see http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/35459/1/4128635.pdf; Breeze, David J., J. Collingwood Bruce’s Handbook to the Roman Wall, 14th Edition, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2006).  A gabata was a kind of dish or platter (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dgabata).

However, con- as a Latin prefix (com- becomes con- before /c/) means 'with, together.'  For example, concavus means, literally, 'with a hollow.' Thus we could interpret Congabata as 'with a hollow platter.'

According to Du Cange’s medieval dictionary , the kind of plate called a grasal or greil – the word preserved in the Holy Grail of Arthurian tradition – was the same as the gabata (http://ducange.enc.sorbonne.fr/GRASALA; https://arbredor.com/ebooks/Arthur2.pdf). We might, then, quite naturally ask whether a fort named for a dish that resembled a grail might not have been the prototype for the later Grail Castle of Arthurian tradition.

Drumburgh, Showing the Platter-Like Ridge Upon Which the Fort Stands

I would tentatively suggest that Drumburgh or Congabata may be the prototype for the later Grail Castles - no matter where these happened to be geographically situated.  A 'Fort with a Dish'  would have immediately drawn to itself mythological motifs concerning ancient  Celtic sacred vessels, themselves to be eventually supplanted by similar cultic items in the Christian religion.

Coincidentally, the fort is mentioned on the Ilam pan (see https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1577008&partId=1).

NOTE: CONGABATA WAS GARRISONED IN THE LATE ROMAN PERIOD BY THE LINGONES, A CELTIC PEOPLE FROM GAUL.  THEIR CAPITAL CITY WAS CALLED ANDEMATUNNUM, A PLACE-NAME MEANING 'GREAT DIVINE BEAR' [SEE MELROSE, R., THE DRUIDS AND KING ARTHUR: A NEW VIEW OF EARLY BRITAIN, MCFARLAND, 2014, P. 81; GRAHAM ISAAC'S PLACE-NAMES IN PTOLEMY'S GEOGRAPHY, 2004; ROSS, A., PAGAN CELTIC BRITAIN, LONDON, 1967, p. 375, FOR MATUNUS IN BRITAIN AS 'DIVINE BEAR, and the tombstone for Matuna at Caerleon (https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/search?qv=matuna&submit=). The Math and Mathonwy of the MABINOGION belong to the same Celtic root, and Arthur is associated with the fort of Math.].